Quickthink

QT is not generally in the business of breaking news, but we saw this post from TechCrunch about the sale of Skype to an investment group.

Interesting —- Skype has a lot of advantages in providing VOIP, and could add a lot more from its core package. But there is a growing pack of competitors. Getting free of EBay should open the door for Skype to get moving. 

Errr ….. Of course, there is that annoying litigation over the licensing of part of its core software (this is mentioned in the NYT article about competitors and in the TechCrunch article both linked above). But the fact that the above deal is apparently done and significant money is about to change hands suggests that at least some big players are not overly concerned about it.

Let’s see what happens.

FOLLOW - Here is the confirmation from NYT.

2d FOLLOW - Here is an interesting interview of Dan Primack from PEHub.com on the deal. Dan calls this a “leveraged carve out” of EBay and notes that the deal makers were able to line up a significant amount of debt to close the deal. Good news for those looking to do leveraged deals.

3rd FOLLOW - Reuters gives this report, with the headline EBay “Unloads” Skype. One thing is clear. EBay has played a smart game to get to where it is now. Instead of a risky IPO, they can hand off all of Skype’s strategic issues, sit back and enjoy the ride.

4th FOLLOW - Bloomberg offers this overview — with a better and more historical perspective on the overall private equity market.

5th FOLLOW - Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro weighs in with a few jokes a EBay’s expense about re-selling stuff you don’t want anymore.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Business, Finance, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.